Rise of the Sound
by The Infamous Jack
Summary: Created with Van the Enigma. Everybody is suspect when a pair of murderous runaways from the Sound threaten the stability and unity of the failing Leaf, and it's becoming harder for Neji to tell which side he's on...
1. The Lotus Seal

This work is the culmination of countless hours of discussion with my good friend, Van the Enigma. This is largely his brainchild, and since he lays claim to no above-average skill with words, it falls to me to write it. I thought the first chapter's publication would make a fitting gift on this auspicious occasion.

Happy birthday, Van. Many happy returns.

This is our attempt at an original-character fanfiction. I have largely ignored this particular genre, finding the original characters to be hideously out-of-place within the Naruto fandom. Not only have we done our honest best to define these characters within the parameters of the fandom, giving them a real place and fitting them as best we could into the natural order, but I would like to take the opportunity to establish this as an Alternate Universe. Though that typically goes without saying, I choose to give it weight in this address. I don't want any crap.

NOTICE: This is fanfiction. If any of my characters resemble any other characters, living or dead, that is entirely intentional. I make no claim to their ownership and do not profit from their likenesses.

Rise of the Sound 

Orochimaru was never known for his patience, and nothing tried this scant resource more than his research department. Not once had they produced anything quite so brilliant as his own creations, marvels of bent physics that transformed the lost and broken of the world into its mightiest soldiers. The parade of developments that came with their most recent monthly report soared to new heights of mediocrity, a cascade of barely-noticeable improvements over existing methods and techniques, none of which was worth the investment that their implementation would require. By the end of the lengthy report, the snake-lord's chin was resting heavily on his fist, supported by the sturdy oak of his favorite chair.

"…bypasses the typical stop-and-go method of eye movement, allowing for more freed and fluid…"

"Madarame-san," Kabuto interrupted, sensing his master's displeasure. The lapdog lieutenant was standing behind Orochimaru, growing weary of the effort himself. "I see no point in continuing this report. Unless one of you has something groundbreaking, you may return to your laboratory."

"Sir," a mellow voice called form the back of the gaggle of researchers. Kabuto rolled his eyes as a tall, lean man with narrow eyes and red hair pushed his way to the fore, pulling behind him a dull gray gurney. Strapped to the rolling bed was a man, muscular but clearly civilian, with iron bars holding his head in place and his mouth shut.

"Kencho, research subjects like this man are expensive and difficult to come by. I hope you haven't ruined him with another of your organ-replacement procedures." Kabuto had never liked Kencho, who was far too grim for his taste. He laughed often, a cold and hateful laugh, but he only ever smiled when he had done something he knew he shouldn't have.

"Orochimaru-sama," the young man began, ignoring the impudent, unimaginative medic, "I've given up on altering the human body to enhance it's chakra usage capacity." A groan from the other researchers made it clear that his was not widely believed to be a worthwhile pursuit.

"Oh?" Orochimaru said, speaking for the first time in nearly an hour. "Well, get on with it, and spare me the technical jargon. Tell me what you've done, and I'll work out the hows and whys for myself."

"Very well, sir. I've developed a seal…"

"_Another_ seal, Kencho-kun?" 

"Yes, Orochimaru-sama, _another_ seal, one that permits truly multiplied chakra usage in a subject. It allows even untrained individuals to forcibly open their Divine Gates, allowing the full potential of their individual chakra to be utilized."

The subtle gleam of interest that had entered Orochimaru's eyes at the mention of a new seal faded with that sentence. Orochimaru reclined into his chair, suddenly very tired. "Very good, Kencho-kun. Now, if you'll all…"

"I've not finished, Orochimaru-sama. The most important part is to come."

Kabuto ground his teeth, anticipating some burst of righteous anger from his master, but in his exhausted state it would not come. All Orochimaru said, following a long sigh, was, "What's the most important part, then?" 

"The seal forms chakra lines spanning the subject's limbs that are used for mobility rather than the body's own muscles. No matter how much chakra is used by the subject, his own body will not disintegrate because, in reality, the body is at rest the entire time."

The assembled researchers gasped and murmured among themselves, and Orochimaru's eyes were wide. Kencho chuckled, though not loud enough for any of them to hear. _Groan at that, you craven old men Orochimaru-sama hasn't shown this much interest in a project for years._

"Tell me more," Orochimaru demanded, leaning forward. Kencho's ego drank in his words before he began again.

"The seal is designed to keep the subject alive," Kencho explained, pointing to a mark on the right shoulder of the man strapped to the gurney. "It retains a quantity of chakra from the subject, which it uses to keep the heart, brain, and other vital organs alive and functioning. All eight gates can, thus, be safely opened at no threat to the subject."

Orochimaru was salivating. If this seal was viable, and it could be implemented in expendable soldiers, it was exactly the backup he would need for his shinobi of the Cursed Seal. The Divine Gates had always been a honeycomb he could quite reach, present in all people yet too deadly to utilize.

"It is an extraordinary seal," Kencho concluded. "It's acceptance rate is more than 60, and unlike your Cursed Seal, it is entirely permanent." He turned to look at the seal, a simple circular arrangement of black rhombuses in the shape of a flower. "I call it the Lotus Seal."

_I heard him incorrectly just then_, Orochimaru thought, _or else he misspoke._ "What do you mean, 'unlike my Cursed Seal'? The Cursed Seal is permanent as well. Removing it kills the subject, almost instantly."

Kencho blinked, turning back to his master. "Uh…I'm sorry, Orochimaru-sama, but you are mistaken. Didn't you get my progress report from, oh, three weeks ago? Four weeks? I don't know exactly, but the Cursed Seal can now be removed without complication. I'm sure I sent you that report."

Orochimaru decided at that moment to change his policy of tossing those reports into the fire. Orochimaru waved his hand at the other researchers. "You all may go. Leave us." The throng of old men and crones left the meeting room, leaving the ruler, his lackey, the doctor, and his hapless patient. "Whose Cursed Seal did you remove for your experiments?"

Kencho choked back a laugh. "Sir, I don't even know _his_ name," he said, elbowing the prisoner on the gurney. "It was some unimportant soldier of yours, one that hasn't been sent out in a year or more. Rather lackluster, as I recall."

It didn't take long for the name to surface in Orochimaru's mind. "Mikuru?"

"Yeah, that's it. Feisty at first, tried to escape, but we got her."

Orochimaru didn't mind that so much. Losing Mikuru would have been a net gain if he had traded her head for a good sandwich. That wasn't the problem. "Who else knows of this development?"

"Just my soft-brained assistant. I thought it'd be best if the troops didn't know without your approval of the new seal."

_The new seal_. The words rubbed Orochimaru like a cat's claws on a sunburn. The Cursed Seal was more than a power source for his minions, it was the leash that kept them subservient. The chakra within it was his own, of his own kind. The addiction to power it fueled was born of his own greed, and it kept those urchins-turned-monsters he called shinobi desperate for his power. If it could be removed, then the reinforcement of that addiction was gone. They could leave him, join his enemies…hell, they could turn on him!

"Explain the process by which the Cursed Seal is removed," Orochimaru said slowly, leaning forward and watching Kencho intently.

"It's simple, really," Kencho said, though it was a hollow phrase. The young man was gifted in the creation and manipulation of seals, his body covered in a macabre collection of arcane designs. Some, including his own Cursed Seal, had been given to him after he entered Orochimaru's service. Others he had given himself, rumors of how he concentrated through the screaming pain involved in the process circulating among the more foolish citizens of the Sound, those that found anaesthetic too tame an answer. The majority of his seals, however, were stolen from slain enemies brought in for examination. Seals cannot be activated on a corpse, so he would cut them from the dead flesh and graft the sections onto his body for study. The less potent were carved off and discarded once their secrets were extracted. Those that proved useful still adorned his body on patches of skin that didn't quite share his sun-starved pallor.

Kencho went on to explain the process of deactivating, isolating, and finally removing a Cursed Seal. Despite Orochimaru's misgivings, the process really was horribly simple. Even the less talented researchers could perform this procedure, perhaps even the assistants, and from the description he guessed it would take less than a day. Kencho was not the brightest among the research staff, his gift for sealing aside, but he had stumbled upon something that could break the entire city, and Orochimaru's plans for it as well.

When Kencho had finished, Orochimaru stood and approached his minion. Kencho was loyal, he was sure. If Orochimaru knew anything from raising the boy, it was that he hated betrayal more than any other offense. However, he had no mind for politics or the designs of great men. Schemes were not to his liking, he was far too honest. Asking him to keep quiet would work for a while, but eventually he would be asked what had transpired while he was alone with his master. If others knew how vulnerable the Sound was to this threat, they would be ruined.

"Kencho, I'll ask you not to say anything about the Cursed Seal or this Lotus Seal. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Orochimaru-sama. What do I do if anyone asks me about it?"

"Lie," came the answer from Kabuto, still standing behind Orochimaru's chair.

Kencho gave a distraught look, but nodded all the same. Orochimaru smiled. "I knew you'd be loyal to me, Kencho-kun. Go back to your lab now, I want another sample of your brilliance. Perhaps something compatible with the Cursed Seal?"

Kencho nodded again, walking blankly toward the door, but Orochimaru knew it would be some time before he came to grips with lying to his comrades. It didn't matter. He wouldn't have to endure their questions long.

Slowly, purposefully, Orochimaru walked back to the gurney, looking down on the man strapped to it. From below, his white face looked like the moon in a field of shimmering black hair. He loosed the bolts holding the plate beneath the man's jaw, freeing him to open his mouth. The prisoner said nothing, only looking up at this abomination of a man.

Orochimaru examined the man with a confident smile that held no hint of warmth. "So," he said, "what's your name?"

A campfire was a rare thing for Team Gai, and it was truly welcome. A long mission in Kumogakure, an ostensibly rain-soaked and unrelentingly gale-torn city with little warmth to be had for outsiders. Tenten indulged a long, satisfying stretch within the ring of firelight, loosing her hair to dry in the heat. Neji sat quietly, nursing a wound in his side that he had sustained a week earlier and that would have to wait another day before proper medical care could be administered. Gai was reciting the lyrics to his fifty favorite songs, part of a wager he had made with himself upon leaving the city of Clouds.

Lee alone was restless. He hated the feeling of not accomplishing anything. He glanced off into the endless forests of Fire Country and mused. It wasn't long before an idea found him, one that struck him as a marvelous way to pass the time.

"My friends," he began, "I have a story to share with you."

"I've had nightmares that begin this way," Neji replied. He had read that somewhere, but he was fairly certain Lee hadn't, and so it was still a viable burn. He gave himself a point in his mental tally.

Lee laughed. "It's a story of these very woods, and the terror that lurks in them."

"_If I go crazy, then will you still call me Superman?_," Gai sang, then paused. "Ah, my wonderful youthful young apprentice, you have a ghost story for us? _If I'm alive and well…_" Gai had stopped calling Neji and Tenten his 'students' years ago, after they became jounin, but Lee would be his apprentice for life, or so he hoped.

"I do indeed, though this is no campfire tale. This comes from the files of the Hokage herself. It is the tale of the Snare."

Neji snorted. He had heard of the Snare before. It was a ridiculous tale, and one hated by the Hyuuga especially for their part in it.

Tenten, however, had never heard the story before, and so kept her attention on Lee. That was all the encouragement he would need.

"It started about four years ago, not so very far from here. A group of Leaf shinobi were making their rounds by night, a group of four. One of them stopped during the patrol, gazing off to the north. The others soon stopped and looked as well, but they saw nothing.

'What's the problem?' they asked their comrade.

'I saw something over there,' he said, 'but I don't know what it was.'

'Was it a person?' they asked.

'Maybe,' he said, 'maybe not. We should check it out.'

So they went north, on and on. Whenever they thought to turn back, another one would see something in the distance, some faint glimmer of yellow and white. They pressed on until the hour before dawn, when the sky on the eastern horizon began to turn from black to blue. That was when they finally found what they were chasing.

It was a man, or at least it had the shape of one, wrapped in the dark garb of ANBU and with the mark of the Sound on its brow. He had only half a mask, his mouth covered instead by a devil's beard. His eyes were dark in the large holes cut for them, though he looked sad and angry and frightened all at once. Every bit of him screamed menace, and the Leaf shinobi wasted no time attacking him.

When they struck, however, they each attacked a different place, though each thought they had attacked the enemy. The first shinobi, the one that had been the first to spot the enemy from afar, turned to his comrades for an explanation. The furthest from him lay on the ground, bleeding from the neck, eyes wide as a frog's. Then came the music."

Tenten, who had been hanging on the story, leaned in when Lee paused. "What music?"

"The music of a flute. The next shinobi tried to fight back, but his hand seals failed him, and the enemy slashed his neck as well. The third shinobi put up a better fight, fighting hand-to-hand rather than with ninjutsu, and so the enemy had to pull his flute from his lips to fight back. For a moment it looked as though he would win, but then, sudden as a flash bulb, the enemy's dark eyes lit up the woods. The Leaf looked around for a moment, as though blind, before the enemy slashed his throat as well."

"This is ridiculous," Neji quipped, whetting the edge on one of his knives. "If all the shinobi died, who's left to tell the story?" 

"That was only three shinobi who died. Remember, my friend, there were four to begin with."

"Yeah, but if he's too dumbfounded to join his comrades in the fight, he's got no hope of winning alone."

"Who's telling the story?"

Neji clammed up, and Lee continued. "The fourth shinobi backed away as best he could. When he tripped on a root, he turned and held out a kunai in defense. The enemy approached, but didn't attack.

'What's your name?' the enemy asked, his eyes once again mere shadows beneath his mask.

'Shiroi Toshiro,' the shinobi answered. He was afraid but didn't stutter. The enemy turned and left without so much as a word. Shiroi ran back to the Lead as fast as he could, but it took much longer than he expected. From the distance he traveled, he realized that he had been in the territory of the Sound when he and his comrades were attacked. He reported to the Hokage, and it was settled that the enemy had been one of Orochimaru's monsters, nothing more and nothing less. Shinobi were warned not to venture in that direction, and to be on guard against a Sound ANBU using genjutsu.

But the attacks didn't stop there. A Hyuuga envoy was waylaid on their way to the Waterfall. An Aburame was killed on routine patrol. Members of every bloodline-limit house were targeted, all lured from their typical rounds with some kind of distraction. They Hyuuga were hit especially hard, losing eleven members in less than fourteen months. Look it up when we get back, it's the truth."

"Really?" Gai prompted, now just as absorbed as Tenten.

"We've lost members to the Sound, just like everybody else. No single person can kill a dozen Hyuuga in their lifetime, much less in fourteen months." Neji didn't see how his teammates could accept such a wild claim, especially after working with him for eight years.

Lee ignored Neji. He was always contradictory in some way or another. Lee was just grateful he wasn't out to prove that nobody but he existed again. That had been a trying week.

The story continued. "ANBU named the enemy the Snare, for the way he lures people into his traps. Where he came from isn't known, but everybody has a theory. Most say that he isn't one person at all, but seventeen people, their most powerful and evil bits sewn together into a golem of flesh and given life by some dark, forbidden technique. Other say he was one of Orochimaru's host bodies, so tainted of his evil that it refused to die when its master left it, and so it roams the forests, killing those who might threaten the Sound. There are still others, those not afraid to whisper in the dark, who say that Orochimaru made a summoning pact with the devils, and that a drop of blood summons the Snare from Hell to do his master's bidding."

Neji sighed, but inside was a bit more satiated than he had been. It was easier to believe that a dozen of his clansmen had been killed by a demon than a man, and that it took the devil a more than a year to do it was something to be proud of. He pulled his blanket over his shoulders and shut his eyes, facing away from his teammates and the fire, but still listening.

"How long ago was all of this?" Tenten finally asked, when it looked like the story was near its end.

"What do you mean? Our patrolmen have gone missing these past fourteen months, many of them Hyuuga. This is a story to us, but in these woods it's more along the lines of current events."

Tenten's eyes opened, and before she could remember to look cool in front of her friends she looked around her for glowing yellow eyes. Lee smiled, knowing his task was complete.

"Well, it's time for us to get to bed," Lee declared. Gai nodded his approval and crawled to his spot by the fire, muttering the words to some ballad or other. Tenten sheepishly lay down, clutching a knife and keeping a keen eye on the forest. Lee grinned, childishly gleeful at his story's impact, and went to sleep.

Twenty-nine miles from where Team Gai had made its camp, something stirred in the green canopy above Hinata. This something was not the wind that had pricked her through the night as she tried to sleep, nor was it the squirrels Kiba said he'd be chasing while she was off on her mission. There was somebody in the branches above her, a stranger. His intent to kill was palpable, pushing her into a cold, muggy sweat despite the chill of early spring. Hinata tried to scream, but her throat tightened around the sound so only useless breath escaped. In an instant the man was no longer there, and in that moment Hinata felt the hope that maybe it had been a dream, that nobody had ever been there.

A warm splash of liquid wrapped itself around Hinata's shoulder. The red stain that accompanied the moist weight of the blood removed Hinata of any further hope. She turned, looking to where her escort had been sleeping. At that time, she did scream.


	2. Defection

Six Days Later

Word spread quickly. Squads assembled at the North Gate, bringing questions to the minds of more observant citizens regarding Konoha's claimed lack of personnel. The two approaching strangers, basically shambling down the forest trail leading to the village, had been followed for miles, inspected and evaluated by jounin and specialists before they were allowed anywhere near the precious citizens of the Leaf. Only after the field agents had deemed them "no threat" was the pair allowed to approach the gate. They were expected long in advance; they had no need to sound the bell and announce themselves. The larger of the two continued on, led to the administrative district by ANBU. The smaller one collapsed and was carried behind the other.

Food and water awaited the visitors in their cells. Ayashii had expected the accommodations, but was rather impressed with how far underground the interrogation rooms were. Kencho, when he awoke, felt perfectly at home, finding some solace in being hidden once more in the bowels of a metropolis. His broad smile never faded once.

* * *

She returned to the city in a daze, escorted by ANBU. She looked terrified and was covered in blood, but for the most part appeared unharmed. She shrank back from any contact, and so her escort simply walked beside her, asking if she was okay and if she required any comforts. All were ignored. Only the Leaf, growing in the distance, seemed to change her expression, if not her pace.

* * *

Tsunade was not pleased. The City guard had acted with complete efficiency, following every protocol and handling the situation with total professionalism. They had, however, neglected to inform her of anything at all, and so she had been pulled from her mid-morning coffee break so her portion of the interrogations could be completed on schedule.

"Damn it all, Shizune! You knew about this the entire time!" she barked, making her way down the long, winding hallway that led to the city's lower interrogation and isolation cells. Shizune did her best to follow, with a pair of ANBU at her heels.

"Yes, Tsunade-sama, but I thought you had been informed! Please, please forgive me!" Shizune's small voice seemed to vanish as soon as it left her lips, drowned by the Hokage's rapid footsteps and absorbed by the claustrophobic walls.

"And you two! What's your excuse?" Tsunade barked at the ANBU, barely turning her head back as she made another hairpin turn and descended further into the labyrinth.

"We're very sorry, Hokage-sama," the junior ANBU explained, "but it has been many years since such an event has occurred. We are not accustomed to telling the Hokage about such things. The Third always knew long before we did about intruders."

There was no time to contest the logic; they had arrived at the first interrogation cell. Jiraiya, the last living village elder, awaited Tsunade at the door.

"He's inside, with Anko and two of her goons," he said, his eyes downcast and thoughtful. "I haven't been inside, so I honestly don't know what they're getting out of him."

"Who is he?" Tsunade asked. The explanations given to her had been very brief and had been littered with apologies.

"Some Sound shinobi, nothing special. Thin as a rail, malnourished, though that may have been from the trip here. His skin is… strange, but aside from that he has no physical abnormalities. He has dozens of visible seals, including a one of Orochimaru's curses, but our experts have repressed that particular seal already. He won't be using it anytime soon."

Tsunade sighed. If he had been cursed, his odds for recovery were slim. She knew what the cursed were like- grim, bitter, violent. This interview would be a sour affair. With a deep breath and a determined look, she unlocked the door and pushed it open.

Laughter poured into the hallway. Inside the cell, Anko was red-faced and rolling on the ground, one hand holding her side and the other waving at the young man sitting in the interrogation chair. The ANBU were only slightly less amused, laughing heartily behind their masks. The subject himself was trying to speak through his own chuckling.

"And then he said…he said…ha ha!…he said, 'Please sir! Don't take that! My son will never respect me again!' Bwa ha ha ha!" Another round of laughs washed over those assembled. Jiraiya and Tsunade exchanged sardonic looks and pressed forward into the interrogation room. Tsunade pulled an unused chair from near the door and sat down opposite the young man.

"My name is Tsunade, one of the legendary Sannin and Godaime Hokage. Who are you?"

The man's giggling died down, but his smile refused to slack. "I'm Kencho."

"What's your full name, Kencho?"

"Why should I give you my full name?"

"I gave you mine."

"You gave me one name. I gave you one name. We're even." He chuckled.

Tsunade groaned. She was familiar with fools, they swarmed her streets, and such logic was easy to manipulate, if tiresome. "Very well. I told you where I'm from and what I do. You owe me that."

"I suppose I do. I was an assistant researcher for Orochimaru-sama in Otogakure. I specialized in using and manipulating seals."

"I can see that." Tsunade's eyes looked over the patterns of black and green on his arms, chest, face and feet. They lingered on two identical roundels, one on each elbow, exposed from the peculiar manner in which he had been tied to his seat. "What does that do?" she asked, pointing to one of his protruding limbs. Kencho cocked his head, but kept smiling.

"No fair, Tsunade-sama. It's your turn.' He nodded at her, his eyes fixated on the spot on her brow. "What does that do? I've never seen one before."

Jiraiya stifled a laugh. Tsunade offered a fake smile. "It siphons chakra constantly until it's used. Then, it releases all that built-up chakra to multiply my cell regeneration rate. It lets me heal very quickly without draining my standing chakra supply."

"Wouldn't that kill you?"

"…Yes, but…you know what, don't worry about me. What does yours do?" Anko had gotten ahold of herself since Tsunade had begun speaking, and was listening eagerly.

"Well, this seal is special. I have four of them, you see, one on both elbows and one on the back of both of my heels. When I turn them on, they drain at my chakra and store it just below my skin."

Akno squealed. "Ooh! So, if you get hit or cut there, will they explode?"

Kencho smiled wider. "No." Anko's eyes drooped a bit. Kencho kept smiling. "When I turn it off, it releases the chakra outward in one burst. Damn fool who had them before me was trying to fly."

"Did he?"

"Oh, yes. That's how we caught him. Very inefficient, couldn't sustain the effort, you see. Came crashing down like ripe fig."

"I see." Tsunade tried to look uninterested, before Anko could begin to think through this information. "Care to tell us about your other seals?"

"I'd rather not."

"Well, we'll need a detailed description of all of them before you leave here. What were you discussing before I came in here?"

"Oh, Kencho-san was telling us about his job," Anko interjected. "One time, a subject screamed so loud that he ruptured a kidney!"

Tsunade turned to give a concerned look at Anko, then back at Kencho. "You know, our village doesn't typically accept that kind of thing. Most wouldn't talk to us so freely about crimes against humanity."

Kencho smiled wider. "She asked me about my job. I told her the truth. Would I be punished for such a thing?"

"It's easy to be distant when you hear about shinobi from distant lands, but what if it-"

"It was a Leaf shinobi. I believe his name was Michikazu. Then again, their names all seem to run together. I can't be entirely sure about that, but the majority of my subjects are indeed from the Leaf."

A surge of frustration threatened Tsunade's clarity of mind. She had known Michikazu. He was an older shinobi lost during an exploratory mission to the northeast just four months prior. He had a seal on his upper back that would absorb impact when activated; he had survived many long falls and surprise attacks with it. She stood and, with the abrupt, efficient movements of a military officer, walked behind Kencho. He was shirtless, and so it was plan to see Michikazu's seal sewn into his upper back.

Tsunade, growing calmer but more malicious, sat once again. "That's why your skin is so patchy, isn't it? You stole all of those seals from captured shinobi."

"Well, it would be improper to say I stole them," Kencho replied, still offering a toothy, sincere smile. "It's not often called 'stealing' when the subject is already dead. Besides, how else was I to figure out how they worked?"

* * *

"It's okay, Hinata-sama, stay calm. We're here, you'll be all right."

The reassuring voices of the ANBU guards did little to ease Hinata's trance-like mood. She walked into the city, still sporting a look of sheer terror and looking as though she hadn't eaten in days. Slowly, ever so gently, the guards steered her toward the hospital. It was clear now that the blood covering her was not her own, though whether the squad members she had been leading were alive or dead could not be guessed.

Once she had been escorted into the city, the ANBU left to resume their patrols. Silently, they were glad to be rid of her. Not one of them had seen her blink since her return.

* * *

Kencho had begun another story, and Anko had opened a can of beer, before Tsunade, Jiraiya, and one of the guards in an ANBU mask stepped out of the holding cell. Tsunade sighed, nodded to herself. "Well," she said finally, looking to Jiraiya, "he says he wants to defect. What do you think?"

"I've seen defectors before. He seems to follow the pattern. Sent on a suicide mission, lived through it, and wants more respect for his own life. I just don't know if the Leaf can accept somebody with that little regard for the lives of others."

"It accepts Anko. She's twice as sadistic as he is, easily."

"Perhaps. All the same, I wouldn't let him out of his cell. At least, not for a while."

"I'd like him to think we trust him. If he is plotting something, it might draw him out if we let him perceive an opportunity."

Jiraiya nodded, thinking deeply. "What about you?" he said to the guard that had accompanied them out of the interrogation room. The man removed his mask and cloak, narrowing his eyes at the revelation of the stunning fluorescent lights. It took only a moment for his white pupils to adjust.

"I detected no deception, no fabrication, not even omission," Hiashi concluded, shaking his head. "The boy is being entirely honest, it would seem. May I go now, Hokage-sama? Though I am glad to serve you and my city, I loathe being reduced to a lie detector."

"Don't feel bad, Hiashi-kun," Tsunade said mockingly, offering a reassuring pat on the shoulder. "You're the best damn lie detector we have. You should be proud."

Tsunade waited for no response, but pressed onward, further down into the earth. The lights grew dimmer as they approached the next holding cell. Six guards stood outside the door, including two jounin. No precautions were ignored when the subject was brought to the interrogation room while conscious. Hiashi donned his fake ANBU gear and followed Tsunade and Jiraiya into the cell.

Inside the room, there were no additional guards. Only Morino Ibiki gave the prisoner company. The two stared at each other, saying nothing. Tsunade looked back and forth between the two, decided that this interview wouldn't be quite as fun, and sat down across from the prisoner.

"Name?" she said icily.

"Genzo Ayashii of the Sound."

"Rank?"

"My rank was the equivalent of your ANBU."

"What was your relationship with Orochimaru?"

"He raised me."

"Why did you leave?"

"You met Kencho? You know what he does?"

"Yes."

"So do I, now."

Tsunade waited for an explanation, but when none came she proceeded.

"For which department did you work?"

Ayashii thought for a moment. "Procurement."

"Procurement of what?"

"Personnel."

"So you're a recruitment officer?"

Ayashii did not reply. Tsunade moved on.

"Why do you want to join the Leaf?"

Ayashii thought for another moment. "Our values seem to be aligned."

Tsunade nodded. That, at least, was plausible. The Leaf had the strongest moral code regarding life and death of any of the Hidden Villages. This attracted a great number of defectors. Most, however, remained in their own countries as spies. Few were stupid enough to try and approach the Hidden Leaf on foot. "When you got here, you and your partner were injured. Who attacked you?"

"He isn't my partner."

"All the same, you were attacked. Who did it?"

"One of his creations. It was supposed to kill me, and probably him too. We killed it instead."

"Can you tell us about it?"

"He'll tell it better. He knows how it worked."

Tsunade grew impatient. She hadn't really liked the last prisoner, not like the other guards and, apparently, Hiashi, but this one was decidedly less pleasant. A large metal object surrounded his right arm, similar to a device seen on a Sound genin some years back. Tsunade pointed to it. "We had another Sound shinobi come to our village with one of those. Is yours an amplifier as well, or does it do something different?"

"The one you saw was likely a prototype. My device is a speaker, as you guess, but it is not so crude and unreliable as those in the past."

Two whole sentences. This one must like to brag. "So you use ninjutsu, then?"

Ayashii scoffed. "Ninjutsu are for those with no imagination. A true shinobi need not use his chakra for such blunt and inefficient purposes."

Like the other, he speaks of efficiency. Like the other, he does not favor ninjutsu. Tsunade was beginning to understand why these two approached the Leaf together.

* * *

"Well, what do you think now?" Tsunade asked once she, Jiraiya and Hiashi had left the prisoner in his cell.

"We don't have the space available to simply hold these two, not if they want to defect. All the same, we can't let them wander around, letting our people become adjusted to their presence for months before they strike. I say we let them roam the city under supervision, with jounin accompanying them. If we make it seem as though our grip has loosened, they may hurry their plans and allow us to be done with them. If they are sincere, on the other hand, it will appear as though we trust them and are willing to accept their services."

Tsunade nodded. Jiaiya made sense, as always. She turned to Hiashi. "And he's telling the truth about everything, I trust?"

Hishi thought for a moment. "This one's hiding something, Tsunade-sama, something fundamental. He was omitting some details about his true occupation, as I'm sure you saw. But his eyes…the chakra veins around his eyes and brain were swollen. Badly. Either he's in need of surgery, or he has some doujutsu not known to us."

"Is it offensive?"

Hishi shook his head. "No, I wouldn't guess so. Kakashi-sama's sharingan draws power directly from his body, as does the byakugan. This is needed for our techniques. Genzo-san's eyes draw their chakra from his brain. Uchiha Itachi's eyes did the same thing, albeit on a much grander scale. I don't imagine his eyes to be particularly powerful, certainly nothing compared to the byakugan, but as their true purpose is a mystery I cannot be sure. He did mention chakra efficiency repeatedly."

Tsunade absorbed this information silently. The first prisoner was clearly a taijutsu user, despite his malnourished appearance, and the number of seals on his body implied that he was of a utilitarian nature. This prisoner seemed well-geared to use genjutsu, being clearly the smarter of the two and heavily focused on sound-based and eye-based techniques while shunning ninjutsu.

After a long while, Tsunade headed back for the surface. Jiraiya and Hiashi followed closely.

"We will let them into the city, as a show of good faith, as you suggested Jiraiya. My apprentice should accompany Kencho-san. She has long ago mastered her chakra control, and closing any of those seals should be easy for her. Tell her to be on guard for any kind of chakra movement. The slightest flicker of power could be one of those damn things switching on."

"And Genzo-san?" Hiashi inquired, hoping somebody very powerful would be assigned to the boy.

"We'll need somebody smart and accustomed to genjutsu. Nara Shikamaru, I think. He's faced genjutsu users before, and he has a cool head. Just make sure you confiscate that sound device before you let Genzo out of his cell, and don't let them near any high-risk areas."

* * *

"Just lie down here, Hinata-chan. It'll be okay."

Sakura eased Hinata onto a clean hospital bed, wiping away spots of dried blood from her face with a hand towel. Hinata had begun to cry, softly, after she had found her friend, and her catatonic state seemed to be diffusing. Sakura offered her a glass of water, which was accepted yet not partaken of. As she went to open a window, a soft knock came at the door. Sakura had expecting well-wishers for Hinata, so this came as no surprise.

"Come in," she said, trying to sound cheerful. Rather than visitors, a single ANBU entered the room and kneeled politely.

"Sakura-sama," he said quietly, as though Hinata were asleep. "Tsunade-sama has requested your presence for a mission immediately at administration building C-1. This is of top priority."

Sakura groaned, expecting fully that her mentor has once again misplaced her ledger or needed help diffusing one of Naruto's rants, and walked to Hinata's side. "I'm going to go take care of this, and then I'll be right back, mm'kay? I'll even send Tsunade to take care of you." _That old witch will have to do some work around here to make up for this._ Hinata did not reply. Sakura put on her shoes and left in a hurry.

* * *

It was a shock to see Tsunade waiting at administration building C-1 with Jiraiya and Hiashi, two of the most important members of the village, whispering beside her. At Sakura's approach, Tsunade shushed her cohorts and turned to her protégé. "Sakura, a defector has just come forth from the Sound. He's new to the village, and we'll want you to escort him around for a while."

Sakura, dumbfounded by this legitimate responsibility, simply nodded.

"Good girl. He's in holding cell 12. Shizune will brief you regarding his threat level. Try and keep him in the southern quarter of the city, would you?"

"Does he know Sasuke-kun?"

Tsunade turned to Jiraiya, who shook his head in disapproval. "We cannot disclose any such information, and it would be wise not to entertain any thoughts of interrogating him yourself. Try to be pleasant, would you? He's a nice boy." She made this assertion, of course, relative to the other prisoner, who had just been discharged. Shikamaru had insisted that the mission be classified as B-rank and that he be paid as such. Tsunade hit him and called him an ingrate. Jiraiya had promised compensation.

Sakura made her way through the building, but ran back to the entrance moments later. "Tsunade-sensei, please go to the hospital and look at Hinata-chan. She's been through some kind of trauma."

"Yes, yes, of course. Thank you, Sakura, now off you go."

* * *

In the eastern quarter of the city, Shikamaru strolled lazily through the streets, not bothering to look at the man beside him. He cracked his neck, then craned it upward, admiring the sky and wishing he could just lounge around.

"So, what do you do for fun?" his charge finally asked, clearly not interested in seeing the mediocre sights of the inner city.

"Usually, I go lay in a field and watch clouds."

Ayashii looked at the ground, then back at Shikamaru. "Can we go do that?"

Shikamaru gave the guest a sardonic glance. "You're all right."

* * *

Sakura picked up her pace, trying to keep up with the long-legged Kencho as he looked around the shopping quarter of the city. His appearance had put her off at first, but his constant smiling and upbeat attitude had made his company bearable, at least.

"I've never seen this many people before! At least, not since I was a kid!" Kencho marveled over every bauble to catch his eye. Every man and woman to walk by in a flak jacket was given a thorough, if rather rude, inspection. Sakura was gradually learning to keep his attention with conversation, finding him very open about his own life and wishing he'd mention Sasuke. and wishing he'd mention Sasuke.

After a walk down main street that seemed much longer than it actually was, Sakura managed to wrangle the defector into a café. A quiet table in the back corner managed to limit Kencho's distractions. After a few minutes of polite conversation, Sakura finally got down to what she really wanted to say.

"You know," she hinted subtly, "I used to be good friends with Uchiha Sasuke. Know him?"

"Of course. Everybody knows Sasuke."

Sakura's heart skipped a beat. "Is he alive?"

"Certainly."

"How well did you know him? Were you his friend? Did you ever…"

"I saw him three times. He even spoke to me, once."

"What did he say?"

"He looked at me and called me a freak." Kencho's smile widened. His narrow eyes got narrower.

Sakura, crestfallen, turned her gaze to her drink. "I wish I could see him. I'd go to him if I knew where he was."

Kencho thought on this for a moment, decided that it wasn't really a question, and said the first thing on his mind.

"You're pretty."

* * *

Hinata was quite a bit calmer when Tsunade arrived than she had been when admitted to the hospital. She was sipping water from the glass Sakura had given her and sitting up in bed, though she had yet to say anything. Tsunade walked briskly into the room and pushed a spoonful of thin, clear liquid into Hinata's mouth. The girl seemed to relax instantly. Jiraiya, who followed close behind, gave Tsunade a puzzled look.

"What was that?" he asked, giving the empty spoon a suspicious glare.

"Sake," Tsunade replied curtly. "Hinata, look at me." Hinata did so, he movements mildly less coherant than before but a look of depression still lingering in her eyes. "What happened to your team?"

"They died," came the quiet reply.

"How? How did they die?"

"I wasn't paying attention. They…he distracted me."

Tsunade had long since grown tired of vague answers to specific questions. "Who distracted you? Who killed them?"

"He…" Hinata grew more tense. Tears began to well in her eyes again. "He came from the north. Sound, maybe Rain…eyes… glowing eyes…genjutsu…"

A shock ran through Tsunade. This was all the proof she'd need. "GUARDS!" she shrieked at the door. Before the word had stopped echoing through the halls, four ANBU appeared in the doorway. "Find Shikamaru and his charge, and bring them back to the holding cells, NOW!"

* * *

Shikamaru had just decided that the cloud he was watching looked like a wedding cake, the guy on the patch of grass next to his was acceptable company, and this was the easiest B-rank mission he'd ever done when two squads of ANBU appeared in a cloud of smoke around him, their weapons pointed at Genzo Ayashii.

"How troublesome…"


	3. Showdown

Chapter Three

Showdown

"You attacked and killed shinobi of the Leaf less than a week ago. Is this true?"

Morino Ibiki did not look up from his clipboard as he questioned Ayashii. The defector from Sound, now wearing little more than the black slacks he had worn upon arriving in the Leaf, sat smug and upright, neither matching Ibiki's gaze nor avoiding it. He sat on the same iron chair in the same cement interrogation room he had occupied that morning, finding it amusing that it was actually more comfortable than the Spartan chambers he, for lack of a better word, enjoyed in the Sound.

When it became clear the prisoner would answer no questions, Anko began to seethe. Ibiki only sighed, joking in his own mind that, for the first time since he was a lieutenant, he was playing the 'good cop.'

"Genzo-san, we've already send ANBU to find your friend. If you don't talk, he will. It'd be better for you if you cooperate now," Ibiki clarified, finding that helping people brought him far less satisfaction than volunteer workers and Christmas carolers would have him believe. "Now, were you, or were you not, the one who attacked the Hyuuga envoy six days ago?"

Ayashii let a small grin show. Ibiki was hating this, but couldn't hurt him until the Hokage arrived.

Anko grabbed Ayashii by the throat, closing his trachea with practiced expertise. "ANSWER, YOU LITTLE…"

"ANKO!" Ibiki barked, prompting his subordinate to let go and begin walking in a frustrated circle. He would have been happy to let her close this pompous snake's throat until the wiggles stopped, but it wasn't the way of the Leaf. He deserved a chance to explain himself, and though a little old-school persuasion could expedite that goal, Ibiki could never really tell when Anko was bluffing.

* * *

Kencho was smiling, admiring his new outfit as he and Haruno Sakura strolled leisurely through the restaurant district. Sakura smiled politely, waving off restaurateurs as they solicited the couple and holding the stranger's arm, but inside she couldn't seem to collect her thoughts. When she had heard that defectors from Sound had arrived, Sasuke's face had popped into her mind. _Has he spoken of me?_ _Did he miss me? Has he gotten stronger? Smarter? More mature?_ The questions piled up, pressing against her conscious thoughts as she escorted Kencho through the city, blocking out all other priorities. She hadn't seen Sasuke in years, but still it had been her only concern.

_Had been. That's key._ Kencho had told her all he knew of Sasuke. It didn't alter her perception of the boy she had known, it didn't introduce and unseen variables that would have rendered him different or foreign at all. He sounded exactly the same.

And that was the problem. Sasuke had not grown, not in the way she had hoped him to, anyhow. She had no doubt he was powerful; she pictured hordes of battle-hardened shinobi strewn across a bloody field, with only the Uchiha boy standing among them. But that wasn't important. Kencho had described a self-centered, overconfident narcissist without character enough to speak without contempt to anyone, including his teacher. This was entirely in keeping with the Sasuke she knew and, if she were honest with herself, it was disappointing.

To make matters worse, Kencho simply refused to hide the fact that he enjoyed her company and found her attractive. He complimented her taste in clothes while they shopped to replace his Sound uniform. He told her how the sunset make her skin glow orange and red. The first time he told her how nicely she 'carried her body,' she could feel herself flush and her hands wouldn't stop shaking for what seemed forever but was nearer to four minutes. Afraid that the boy would find her odd for her fumblings, Sakura decided to hold his arm for balance.

Now my pulse is going up, I can't control my breathing, my palms are getting sweaty, I'm sure I'm blushing…

"You're so cute when you blush," Kencho admitted, a sly grin pricking at the corners of his mouth.

_Hell! He's seen me blushing! How do I cover?_

"Hey! Haruno-san!" a familiar voice called before Sakura could think of an excuse. Her head still awash with a thousand questions, Sakura took a minute to recognize the man calling to her. He owned a small restaurant, operated by his wife and children. Team 7 had worked with him in the past, collecting debts from deadbeat customers while they were still genin. She ate there occasionally, enough to be noticed walking by in the dim lamplight of early evening. "Why don't you and your boyfriend come in and eat, eh? My wife will make you something special!"

"I…he…" was all Sakura managed to get out before a single ANBU appeared, kneeling, just ahead of her.

"Haruno-sama, there has been an incident. The Hokage requires the Sound shinobi in the interrogation rooms immediately."

"Oh, and we were having so much fun," Kencho sighed, grinning. Sakura smiled a bit and nodded to the ANBU. The masked man left in a flash, followed quickly by Sakura and her charge. The dust settled in the street, leaving a single despondent restaurateur to grieve the loss of a big tipper with a guest from out of town.

* * *

Tsunade and Jiraiya watched on with apathy as Ibiki struggled to remain upright, his arms locked behind Anko's shoulders as she struggled and screamed at Ayashii. The Sound defector sat in his chair, looking at Tsunade in a very smug way.

"That will do, Ibiki," Tsunade spoke, loud enough to be heard over Anko's thrashings. "Why don't you take Anko to get a nice cup of coffee? She seems stressed."

Ibiki, not really caring for humor so lacking in morbidity, simply dragged Anko from the room without remark. The door shutting behind them replaced a silence in the deep room which seemed particularly unnatural following Anko's outburst. Jiraiya walked to the back of the cell, where Ayashii couldn't see him. Tsunade took a seat facing the prisoner, assessing him in her head. He was rather large, his muscles seeming less stretched onto his frame as they did spread across it. He hadn't shaved in some time, though it seemed that he had once sported prominent sideburns. White stubble, matching the locks on his head, was growing in beneath a pair of tragic gray eyes. He seemed familiar, like someone she had known long ago but hadn't seen in ages. Then again, she had gotten déjà vu when she dropped the shampoo bottle on her toe in the shower that morning, and gut feelings were not her strong suit.

After a short, deliberately awkward silence, Tsunade spoke. "So, gonna talk?" she asked, simply.

"I'd love to, but whatever shall we discuss? The weather's been dull lately. How about sports?"

Tsunade held the bridge of her nose. Her evening plans had involved fewer enemies of the state and far more brownies and bad foreign movies. "Did you attack the Hyuuga envoy?"

Nothing.

"Why did you do it?"

Nothing still.

"Why did you leave Hyuuga Hinata alive?"

A knock at the door. Tsunade groaned and looked back over her shoulder. "COME IN!" she shouted. ANBU led Sakura and Kencho into the cell. Sakura looked worried. Kencho looked amused. "Sakura, wait outside with the ANBU. I may need you. Uh…"

"Kencho, ma'am," the young man offered.

"Yes, Kencho, come in. Take a seat." He did so without complaint, giving neither Jiraiya nor Ayashii a single glance. "Tell me, what was Genzo-san's occupation in the Sound?"

Kencho looked at Ayashii, then back to Tsunade. "It was his job to hunt down and bring in enemy shinobi. I think in the Leaf you called him the Snare, or some such foolishness."

Ayashii turned to Kencho, a hint of shock in his expression. "Bastard."

Tsunade ignored the remark, thinking intensely about Kencho's statement. "What happened to the shinobi he captured?"

"Most were sent to research. A good many of them came to me. We would test all sorts of things on them that we wouldn't risk using on one of our own. One patient," Kencho craned his thin neck backward to look at Jiraiya, "looked a lot like you. Acted like you, too; you remind me of him. We tried to replace the bones in his hands and feet with steel." The young man's smile took on an ever more sinister quality in his odd position. "He kept screaming even after I cut out his tongue."

Jiraiya winced, then ran his own tongue along the roof of his mouth and over his teeth. Just to make sure.

Tsunade, not wishing to get sidetracked, pressed forward. "Where did the enemy shinobi come from?"

"The Leaf, mostly, but that's just overall. The majority of my own patients were from the Waterfall and Mist villages. Lots of seals on them, you see. Load of twisted perverts, most of them, but one or two were legitimately useful."

Ayashii pursed his lips and shook his head at nothing in particular. These people would kill him, in all likelihood.

"So, then, why don't you tell me, Kencho-san, the full story of how you came to defect to the Leaf?"

"With gusto, Hokage-sama. Well, Orochimaru was unhappy with me for developing a seal which, like the Curse Seal, could provide a subject of immense power, but do it without the addictive taint of Orochimaru's chakra. It was a lot like the difference between cocaine and adrenaline. Natural chakra just feels better, you know?"

"Of course." She didn't.

"Anyhow, the real trouble came when I told Orochimaru-sama that I could remove his Curse Seal. That option was unacceptable, and if his subjects knew about it they would abandon him. You follow?"

"Yes." She did.

"Well, it wasn't long afterward that Genzo-san returned from one of his patrol missions to the south with a fresh batch of subjects. I didn't know Genzo-san before that time, you see, but I knew he had returned because the subjects we got at the labs that day weren't exactly volunteers. Now, from what I understand…"

* * *

The smell of fresh blood and a lingering taint of murderous intent was so common as to be expected as Ayashii entered Orochimaru's audience chamber. It was a damp, poorly-lit room barely much larger than the personal quarters his minions were given, but the intimacy it forced upon its visitors often facilitated Orochimaru's powers of intimidation.

The man himself was seated on what could only be called his throne, his head, heavy with thought and dark contemplation, rested on his fist, propped up by a thick oaken armrest. He was looking more himself again; the lively and hopeful eyes of the man he had taken hold of were retreating once again into lustful orbs sunken into a face the color of death. Orochimaru, obviously pleased with this transformation, smiled at the mirror hung on the wall beside the door, positioned to give him warning against attack from behind.

Ayashii bowed to one knee before speaking, uttering the name of his master before lifting his head. "Orochimaru-sama," he said, grim and displeased despite his non-threatening posture, "I am appalled."

Though Orochimaru let his eyes open a bit wider, they were still little more than shut. "What's the problem, Ayashii-kun?"

Ayashii stood, trying not to look at Orochimaru's eyes. "I spoke with one of your researchers today. He said you took over another local village since my departure."

Orochimaru remained deceptively still. "This troubles you? You've killed hundreds these twenty years, you have no right to judge the actions of my other shinobi."

"Do as you damn well please, it's nothing to do with me. My problem came up when he told me that you took on a young boy from the village to work for you. They say he plays a harp, and you wanted to raise him and see what techniques can be coaxed from that instrument."

"Jealous?" Orochimaru smiled. Competition and jealousy kept his minions motivated.

Ayashii gritted his teeth. "Is that where I came from, Orochimaru-sama?"

"Of course, Ayashii-kun. Where else, if not here? You're a native son of the Sound, one of the first. You should be proud." There was no use lying anymore. Ayashii had reached his full potential, the experiment was complete. He could kill the boy if he had to, and no great loss would be incurred. "Don't tell me this is the first time you've guessed at this."

It was. Ayashii approached the throne, an act attempted by few sane men without desperation. When he was near enough to address his master without raising his voice in the echoing hall, he spoke through a clenched jaw. "What happened to my parents?"

"They were killed, obviously. I stabbed your father on the battlefield, but your mother lived for some time in the laboratories. She had been pregnant at the time, and the technicians wanted to see if they could kill the mother and not the infant, or vice versa, without surgery or poisons. Both died before too long."

Ayashii swung for Orochimaru's mocking grin. The old man caught his subordinate's fist with ease, scarcely moving with the effort and easily matching his strength. Ayashii twitched, but no retaliation came.

"I have a new mission for you," Orochimaru said, releasing Ayashii's hand and standing to walk away. Ayashii didn't move, finally comprehending what he had just done and fully expecting swift death. "It's a patrol mission, but it's a little different than what you're used to. There's a young researcher, Kencho-kun, do you know him?"

It was a few seconds before Ayashii could reply. "Yeah…he's the one I talked with."

Orochimaru withheld a laugh. "Excellent. Take him with you and start surveying to the west. Leave by dawn and make a fifty-mile arc from southwest to northwest. Return here in a week and report any encounters. Attack nothing and no-one."

Ayashii still did not move, even to turn and face orochimaru as he left the room. "Yes, Orochimaru-sama."

* * *

Jiraiya, now seated to take in the story, turned to Ayashii, who was listening to ensure he was not misrepresented. "You tried to hit him?"

"Yes," Ayashii responded, his voice lacking lilt.

"That was a supremely bad idea."

Ayashii looked at the smiling, fat man with indigence. "I _know_."

* * *

It had been three days since Ayashii had left the Sound with Kencho, and already he found the man insufferable. He simply refused to speak about anything that wasn't medical, couldn't be bothered to watch for potential threats as they moved, ate twice his fair share of the rations, and didn't smile once. When a narrow patch of grass between the forest and the edge of the Eastern Plateau forced them to walk rather than run, Ayashii decided to try at some conversation.

"Where are you from, Kencho?" he blurted out, turning his head back and forth to scan the tall grass for squatters on Sound land.

"Wind Country," the scientist growled, looking straight ahead as he walked.

"How did Orochimaru-sama discover you?" This was the appropriate question among the Sound; nobody ever 'came to the Sound' or 'found Orochimaru.' It's simply understood that Orochimaru knew you would join the Sound and so brought you into his home, whether this was the case or not.

"My father betrayed the Sand to the Rock. I was young. Orochimaru-sama took me in."

Asking about the past was getting nowhere slowly. Next on the diplomatic checklist was flattery. "Well, I'm very impressed with your work. Not everyone would have the stomach for it."

"Not working my assigned task would be treason. I will not betray Orochimaru-sama."

_Oh, he's one of those._ Children raised in the Sound without direct access to Orochimaru tended to idolize him. Many worshipped him. Ayashii was reared in a small group of children very near to Orochimaru until he was old enough to work. He saw in his master less a god than a leader.

"I suppose you're among the Cursed, then?" Again, Ayashii made sure to use the language of the Sound zealous. To be one of the Cursed was never an insult.

"Yes," Kencho responded, though with a clear tone of melancholy. His eyes drooped a bit. His pace slackened. Ayashii saw an opening.

"Do you regret that?" he asked, still not turning to look Kencho in the eye. He scanned the horizon, the tree line, the rock face…

"Yes," Kencho admitted with sincerity. "I regretted it immediately. My body was a monstrosity when I released my Curse Seal's full potential. I didn't even feel myself, I felt like some extension of Orochimaru-sama. I removed the second layer of my Curse Seal the very minute I discovered how. I can draw upon the seal's power, of course, but it cannot provide me the power of its transmutations." Kencho smiled a bit. "I felt betrayed by Orochimaru-sama when I saw what had happened to me. I feel more free now."

Ayashii stopped listening just before Kencho finished. Both men froze, the wind blowing the tall grass in waves near the cliff face. A chakra presence, a mere flicker of energy far off, had registered on the wind. Ayashii turned his head to the left, toward the edge of the plateau and down into the valley beneath. It was from there that their enemy appeared, vaulting himself over the ledge and beyond the pair. They stood for a moment between the intruder and the cliff's edge before recognition caught up with Kencho.

"Hey, you're my subject! What's-his-name!"

"MY NAME IS OKI, YOU SADISTIC JACKASS!" the man screamed, energy burning out of the Lotus Seal Kencho had put on his arm to present to Orochimaru. "I have waited for this. The great Orochimaru-sama promised to deliver you to me if I would serve him."

Ayashii thought the situation through. Slowly, he began to pull his flute from his pocket. "Well, you've got him, so I'll just go and finish our patrol mission."

"There is no patrol mission, you ignorant swine. Orochimaru-sama sent me to kill you both."

Ayashii narrowed his eyes and tightened his grip on his flute. Kencho nodded. "Okay," he consigned. "Though I wish it didn't have to be so. I could still serve Orochimaru-sama."

Oki shook his head vigorously. "No, you're too dangerous to be kept alive. You could inconvenience his plans."

Kencho sighed, but showed no sign of disagreement. Ayashii was dumbstruck for a moment, but not a long moment. "Idiot! Don't let him kill you!"

"It is Orochimaru-sama's will."

"Then defy him! You shouldn't have to die just because you found a way to best his plans!"

"That's a perfect reason for anyone to die."

Ayashii groaned. "He betrayed you, jackass! You don't have to listen to him anymore!"

Kencho thought for a second. Aside from being called a jackass with greater frequency than that to which he had grown accustomed, nothing about this seemed disagreeable. He had been betrayed, and so had no responsibility to Orochimaru. A smile spread across his face with this realization, followed by a series of silent flashes as, one by one, the seals covering his body switched on. He turned to Ayashii, a wild grin on his face.

"He's using his Divine Gates as a power source, and chakra strings as muscles. I'll finish what I started, you keep me covered."

Ayashii shot Kencho a smile in return. "You got it."

End Chapter Three

I planned to include the end of this particular part of the story in this chapter, as well as a considerable amount more, but that doesn't seem possible now that this half-finished section is more than 3,000 words long. I'll let this sink in then hand you the rest. Rock on, and don't forget to review. Like it, don't like it, I don't care, just give me a pulse so I know you're out there.


	4. Abomination

Oki was unsteady, waiting for his two targets to make the first move. His power was overwhelming, and Orochimaru had assured him that the two men wouldn't pose a threat, but he wasn't used to moving around so easily or using chakra strings to control his body.

Kencho knew Oki had the firepower to destroy the whole countryside; that had been his goal. He also knew of the man's unease and awkwardness- that had been the purpose of choosing a civilian test subject rather than a volunteer shinobi. If things got out of hand, he had to be able to destroy his subject. Oki was like a monkey with an explosive note: dangerous, but unreliable.

Kencho made the first move, dashing in with a kunai to strike Oki from the side. The Lotus Seal couldn't activate all eight gates at once, or the unleashed energy would rip the user's body apart, chakra strings or not. Killing him quickly was vital. As he swung for his target, however, Kencho was brought to a screeching halt. Oki had simply grabbed his kunai mid-strike. The man now bled from the hand, slightly, but he had already mustered enough strength to deform the knife with his fingers. He raised his free hand, ready to strike Kencho with an earth-shattering fist, when an airy pop sounded from Kencho's elbow. He had activated one of his rocket seals.

The force of Kencho's pent-up chakra drove the twisted, but still sharp, kunai to its mark in Oki's side, narrowly missing his heart. The man screamed in pain, a familiar sound to Kencho, and struck his attacker square in the chest. Kencho flew limply through the tall grass, landing several yards away, dirty and hacking.

Kencho staggered to his feet, still grinning madly. Oki pulled the knife from his side, ignored the mass of blood that followed it, and rushed his hated enemy as the Lotus Seal filled him with a new surge of power. He swung his massive fist for Kencho's head, and thought for a moment that it had connected, but then realized that he hadn't struck anything. There was nobody there to strike. The force of the blow that didn't land threw him off his feet. A moment later he rose again, furious, and realized that the ringing in his ears wasn't just from the fall.

After a moment of scanning, he saw Ayashii standing in the distance, near the treeline, playing his flute. The speaker on the shinobi's arm ensured that he could be heard over a distance, but that the source of the music was somewhat obscured. Orochimaru had warned him that the flute could cause illusions, and as long as Ayashii was backing Kencho up with the music, he didn't have a chance. As much as he hated Kencho, he'd have to kill Ayashii first.

Kencho stood between Oki and Ayashii. Blood foamed at the corners of his mouth as he breathed, a byproduct of the rib-crushing blow he had just received. He had a seal, conveniently placed on the inside of his left wrist, that would convert some of his chakra into healing chakra that would help stop the bleeding, but he couldn't spare the energy. Like Ayashii, he had a shallow chakra supply. That's why he used so many seals that leeched that power for later use- they would continue to work, even when he was exhausted, so long as they had some amount of chakra left over. Something active, like healing, was a waste so long as their opponent was still standing.

At that moment, it became clear to Kencho why Orochimaru had chosen Oki to kill them. The man had the hatred and determination to draw the fight out into a battle of attrition, and with the Lotus Seal he was sure to win such a battle. _The answer, then, is to kill him as quickly as possible._

Kencho made another mad dash for Oki. The chakra and intent to kill became overwhelming as he drew near his target, but both of those feelings were common enough in the Sound. Only Oki himself was the real threat.

Oki's eyes burned with the influx of chakra as the Lotus Seal neared its final stages. Kencho seemed to be moving through molasses as he charged, and it was as easy as breathing for Oki to drive his fist into the reckless attacker. The figure disappeared as the blow connected, however, and Kencho struck the side of his head with a vicious kick powered by a rocket seal. Oki reeled, but only for a second. He was drunk on the chakra of his Seventh Divine Gate, and pain of that level had ceased to register for him.

With a single motion, his arm snapped outward, grabbed Kencho's arm, and pulled the shinobi around in front of him so as to expose his back. Oki drew back his free hand, let out a primal scream, and slammed his fist into Kencho's back.

The scream that followed was not primal, but agonized. At the last moment, Kencho managed to trigger the massive seal on his upper back, the one stolen from the Leaf shinobi a few months prior. It absorbed and reflected the energy of Oki's blow, turning his own power against him. That single strike would have broken Kencho's spine; instead, it shattered Oki's arm.

While his opponent was distracted by the pain, Kencho wrenched himself free and ran, limping, back to where Ayashii stood, playing his flute.

"His head feels like iron," he exclaimed, half-laughing with a toothy smile. "I think I broke a leg with that kick, and deflecting that blow took too much energy. I'm almost out of chakra, and he's not even at full strength yet. Any ideas?"

Ayashii was in a considerably worse mood than Kencho. He had faced powerhouse enemies before, but this was a whole different level. Forcing a genjutsu into all the chakra swirling through Oki's brian was almost impossible. "What are you asking me for? You made this bastard."

"Yes, but _you're_ the field agent! I'm just a researcher." Back in the tall grass, Oki had overcome the wretched pain in his arm, which hung limply at his side as he stood. Both of his opponents felt a sudden rush of urgency.

"You said he controls his body with chakra strings from that seal, right?" Ayashii asked, raising his flute to his lips once again.

"Yes," Kencho confirmed.

"Get him in close to me," he said, now matching Kencho's smile. "I'll give you an opening. Kill him quick."

Kencho drew a kunai, smiling and giddy. "Absolutely."

Oki spotted Kencho and Ayashii on the far side of the small field, away from the cliff's edge. He was quite lucid, the adrenaline rush from the pain having pressured the Lotus Seal into completing its work. Every hair on his body stood on end, every nerve simply awaiting instruction. He had to be careful, since trying to use his muscles with all eight Divine Gates opened would tear his body apart. Simply, calmly, he darted for the pair, covering the distance between them in a flash.

He drove his shoulder into Kencho, who may as well have been a statue. He crouched to spring at Ayashii as Kencho fell. At that moment, Ayashii played a single note on his flute, and when Oki lunged for the kill, he instead flung himself impotently off to one side.

Ayashii kept playing his song as Oki crashed headlong into the clay and Kencho, weakly, lifted himself to his feet. The researcher realized instantly what his counterpart had done; rather than disrupt the flow of chakra in Oki's mind, like a genjutsu usually would, he had disrupted the flow of the chakra strings that controlled one of his legs. Oki's poor chakra control made this a simple task, but a highly effective tactic. However, he also knew that Ayashii wouldn't have enough chakra to overcome the Lotus Seal's control for long. He would have to end this.

Oki regained control of his leg, and started to right himself, when Kencho attacked with his knife. Oki had regained enough awareness to swing his arm dumbly at the threat, sending Kencho rolling through the grass. Now, nothing stood between Oki and Ayashii. He charged forward, not quite as fast as he had been before and paying no heed to the illusions that tried to distract him. Before he could make contact, Ayashii's eyes began to glow, and Oki felt a sudden killing intent from behind. _Kencho!_ He panicked and stopped, turning to counter-attack, but there was nobody there. When he turned back, he saw that Ayashii was gone as well, now further away playing his flute. Oki felt his legs give out once more, and caught himself from falling completely with his one free arm.

Angrily, Oki heaved himself to his knees, regaining some control much faster than before. Such a trick would not work again. Before he could stand, and while his only functioning arm was still propping up his body, a pair of feet came into view. Kencho stood above him, forming hand-seals like mad. Oki tried to shuffle away, but to no avail. Kencho reached down and, with his last reserve of chakra, deactivated the Lotus Seal.

For a moment, nothing happened. Kencho simply moved away from Oki as quickly as he could. Then, a slow, searing pain rose in Oki's gut, burning down his spine and into his brain, as the chakra flowing from his Divine Gates overpowered every muscle, every organ, every nerve in his body. Flares of uncontrolled chakra began to twist off of his form, searing the grass and sending plumes of smoke into the sky. Oki screamed, but only for a moment, before he finally collapsed, dead and burning in a pit of ashy soil.

Ayashii walked to where Kencho (barely) stood, his breathing slightly labored.

"Now what?" he asked, though they both knew that they were clueless.

"Orochimaru-sam…Orochimaru will send others after us when whats-his-name doesn't report back," Kencho observed, grinning though he winced from the pain. "We won't last long on our own, especially not in our condition. Perhaps we should enlist with another Hidden Village."

Ayashii nodded. Both of them had secrets that would be valuable to Orochimaru's enemies, and there was no way he would return to the Sound after learning the fate of his parents. "Did you have one in mind?"

"Uh…" Kencho thought hard for a second. "Not really. I don't know as much about the outside world as you do, Genzo-san, so I'll defer to your judgment. It would be nice if we could go someplace where we won't be simply pumped for information then killed."

Ayashii gave a small smile. Fate had a sense of irony. "There _is_ a village like that. Unfortunately, it's the Hidden Leaf. If we show up there, we'll probably rot in prison cells until Orochimaru destroys the city or the world ends, whichever comes first."

Kencho laughed at that, but stopped laughing when he noticed how much it hurt. "Prison sounds pretty good about now."

Ayashii put Kencho's arm over his shoulder and began the long walk south. "Yeah, well, let's hope they're in a really good mood when we get there."

"The trip here was rather uneventful," Kencho concluded. "We recovered a bit, but since we didn't have enough food for the trip we didn't have much energy. Then you put us in interrogation cells, then sent us out into the city, then put us back in the cells, and here we are!"

Tsunade nodded along with the story, scanning for bits that could possibly be confirmed. "Why should I believe any of that? How do I know Orochimaru didn't send you here to spy on or sabotage our village?"

Kencho shook his head. "You don't know that, obviously. However, at least some people in your village should be able to tell whether or not I'm lying. " His perpetual grin widened. "And I hate lying."

Tsunade turned to Ayashii. "Is that story true?"

Ayashii nodded once. "He didn't have all the details of my little chat with Orochimaru, but yeah, everything he said was correct.

Tsunade thought for a moment. "Tell me about your eyes,"

Ayashii didn't find this to be a promising area of inquiry. "Why?" he asked.

Tsunade resisted shouting. "That was a rather interesting part of the story, and I'm not sure I understand it. Besides, you're not in a position to negotiate. Tell me about your eyes."

Ayashii sighed. He may as well. "My eyes focus my chakra for a special doujutsu. It…_encourages_ my enemies to feel fear, and makes them easier to confuse. It's a precursor to using normal genjutsu."

"What does that look like? To your enemies, I mean?"

"Would you like to see?"

Tsunade hesitated, not sure whether to allow such a thing while the prisoner was in confinement. After a few moments, however, Ayashii took her silence for permission. The room seemed to dim behind him as his eyes glowed, yellow and white, and Tsunade was suddenly panicked that he was trying to escape the cell. She stood up, knocking her chair back. She looked to the others in the room, those standing behind the prisoner, and wondered why they weren't stopping him…

But then, nothing. She was once again confident in the prisoner's restraints, and knew there was no reason to worry. It dawned on her that this sudden lucidity was probably due to breaking eye contact with Ayashii, that the genjutsu had worked as described.

And if it was powerful enough to cause mild alarm in someone as powerful as herself, then it could probably induce righteous terror in lower-level shinobi. She could definitely see how this would aid normal genjutsu. "What did Orochimaru design those eyes for, specifically?"

Ayashii said nothing. Tsunade turned to Kencho. "Do you know?"

Ayashii shot him a wicked glare. "Shut up, Kencho."

Kencho ignored him. He had been asked a _question_. He couldn't just _not answer_. "Orochimaru wanted Genzo-san to be able to fight against shinobi with bloodline limit abilities. The Hyuuga, specifically, were a target, since it's almost impossible for them to break eye contact during battle, which is how the doujutsu is transmitted. Orochimaru designed it that way after the Uchiha were wiped out. It's dangerous to look them in the eye, you know."

Tsunade held up her hand. "_Wait._ How did Orochimaru "design" a doujutsu? You have to be born with doujutsu."

Kencho nodded. "Yes, that's right."

"Shut up, shut up, shut up…" Ayashii mumbled angrily.

Kencho ignored him. "Orochimaru genetically engineered Ayashii from the DNA of other powerful shinobi."

"Will you please _shut up?_" Ayashii implored.

"What shinobi?" Tsunade asked, similarly ignoring Ayashii, who was struggling against his restraints.

"Well, excluding the engineered material which Orochimaru made himself, 90% of Genzo-san's personal genetic makeup comes from Orochimaru's mentor, the Third Hokage."

The room fell silent for a moment, then Kencho continued.

"The other 10% is Orochimaru's DNA."

"_I can't believe you won't shut up!_" Ayashii shouted.

Tsunade was incredulous. "So, the Third Hokage is…" she trailed off.

"Yes, he would be like Genzo's father. Orochimaru, I suppose, would be like his mother."

"_ARGH!_ I'll kill you! I'll kill you _dead_!" Ayashii rocked back and forth in his chair, inching his way to where Kencho sat unrestrained. Ibiki stoically put his hands on the back of Ayashii's chair, holding him in place.

Tsunade shivered. What an abominable creation. No wonder his features had seemed familiar. Jiraiya still stood in back. He glared at Ayashii, and his instincts told him that the man was no less than the sins of his old rival made flesh.

"What about you?" Tsunade finally asked. "Anything about your history we should know?"

Kencho thought. "No."

Tsunade didn't believe him, but didn't care enough to press the matter just then. "Tell Sakura to look after Kencho tonight," she ordered a nearby ANBU, "but he is to be kept out of any sensitive or heavily-populated areas." Kencho stood, bowed to the Hokage politely, and walked out with the guard. Tsunade turned to a second ANBU. "Tell Nara Shikamaru that his assignment is over."

Jiraiya exited the room with Tsunade, leaving Ayashii in Ibiki's hands. Shizune awaited them outside the cell.

"The DNA of Orochimaru," Jiraiya said, once the doors had closed, "and raised to kill in the Sound. There's no way he can be trusted to move around the city."

"He also has the DNA of Sarutobi," Tsunade pointed out. She saw some of her teacher in this shinobi; indeed, she might have begun to understand why he had left Hinata alive. "I think we should give him some leash. You know, let him move around, feel at home. If he's sincere about defecting, then it will speed up the process, and we can't afford to pass up any help right now. We're at war with the Sound, and it looks like the Rock will begin hostilities at any time. If he's not sincere, then we might trick him into lowering his guard. If he thinks he'll have an easy time pulling something, he may get sloppy when he makes his move."

JIraiya nodded. "You have a point. It would be good to have a jounin accompany him, someone skilled enough to bring him down. But, in order for the trap to work, it has to be someone he'll underestimate."

Tsunade considered this, and after a moment's deliberation she turned to Shizune. "Go find Hyuuga Neji. Tell him I need him here for an A-Class mission."


End file.
